Hundreds of city residents were not thrown out of work in the local foie-gras industry, and thousands of ducks and geese were not subsequently freed to roam Takoma Park's streets in the wake of the city council's resolution to ban, . . . er, impose, . . . no, . . . "oppose," that's it, oppose the production of foie gras, and instruct, . . . correction, that's "encourage" city residents not to purchase any. No city grocery stores and gourmet shops were shuttered, their employees were not arrested, nor were they charged with animal cruelty.
]]> * * * *Why is Your Gilbert so hard on animal rights activists, or "beastie-borgs" as we affectionately call them? Because we know from experience that they respond like a robot army to any hint of criticism, and we expect the comment section to be flooded with screeds of humorless outrage. This will give the impression that granolapark is widely read and full of lively controversy.
They burnish their resumes, Your Gilbert burnishes his.
- Gilbert
]]>Relax, there is no conspiracy to keep Sam Abbott's name off Takoma Park's community center, though it has been conspicuously absent since the renovated building was opened in 2005.
Abbott’s constituency: his old political allies and friends, longtime residents, and other Keepers of the Flame, suspect that some of the current council and newer, more affluent residents would just as soon airbrush our late, lefty mayor out of the picture. What was up, they wondered, first as the renovated building sat conspicuously unsigned for over two years, then as small signs were posted curbside reading merely “Community Center” or “City of Takoma Park?”
]]> * * *There will be signs at other entrances as well, each containing the full name.
The name signs are only a few of a large batch of signs being made to order, which is one reason it has taken so long. ALL of the community center’s interior signs are being fabricated at the same time. Before they were made, the placement, size, wording, and style for all those other signs had to be worked out first.
The small signs with the center’s truncated name recently installed outside the building are part of the city’s “Gateway” signage project, and are unrelated to the building signage.
- Gilbert
PS. More of Your Gilbert’s BRILLIANT thoughts on the community center’s name: ” Carpal Tunner and Sprained Tongues” and “Limb-O.”
]]>The final city budget vote whizzed by so quickly Your Gilbert almost missed it. We were busy poking ourselves with sharp pins to keep ourselves awake during yet another set of citizen committee interviews when we heard the words “. . . budget tax rate passes.”
The Takoma Park city council reduced the tax rate by a half cent (not the two cent reduction advocated by council freshman Dan Robinson). For every $100 of assessed value of their homes, resident homeowners will pay sixty and a half cents.
Complaints about the budget process were voiced the previous week by many of the council members. Councilmember Robinson said he had been taken aback when in the course of public meetings with department heads there was no review of their budgets. As Your Ace Reporter Gilbert reported at the time “The budget discussion has largely consisted of department heads being interviewed by the council. These are similar to citizen committee interviews . . . . In both cases the interviewee tells the council how much they want to serve the city, and the council tells the interviewee how much they appreciate their committee/department.”
]]> * * * *He was not the only one with a raised eyebrow. Other councilmembers, notably Terry Seamens, also thought there was precious little review in the review. They vowed to change the process next budget eason.
Dear Readers with long memories will recall last year’s budget process under our previous mayor Kathy Porter. Those readers are recalling with a spooky sense of deja-vu the similar council complaints and vows to reform the process then.
We are wondering, Dear Readers, that since Takoma Park has a professional city manager whether the council really gets much say in the matter.
In a city manager-style of government part of the city manager’s job description is to devise the budget. The point of this is to take that job out of the hands of the elected officials who may want to use the budget as a partisan tool. It also supposedly put the job in the hands of an expert who would have the best interests of the city residents (and their pocketbooks) in mind. That was the idea during the Progressive Era when the city-manager model was invented.
As you can see in last weeks guest blog by Alain Thery, some citizens (and perhaps a councilmember or two) suspect city managers are more interested in maintaining and growing the city bureaucracy than guarding the public pocketbook.
What do you think, Dear Reader?
- Gilbert
]]>*FACT*: According to a recent MontCo Planning Department housing study, between 1997 and 2005 Takoma Park residents experienced the highest increase in homeowners' costs in the County (while at the same time facing the highest decrease in median income).
Could this above average increase in homeowners' costs be related in any way to the sharp increases in property tax rates by the City during that period despite high increases in assessments toward the end of the period? Between 2005 and today, this increase in property taxes was modulated somewhat by a 7% decrease in the rate while assessment during the period rose 30%.
Looking at the 5/27/08 TP Council meeting, it does not look that the Council members in their majority are even aware of the situation that has been created for residents by relentless double-digit annual increases in City budgets approved by past and present Council members.
]]> * * * *Is this blindness the result of a clever manipulation by the City Manager that has become a master of annual claims that the City's financial prospects are worrisome (even though, as this year, the data shows a healthy level of tax collection and only minor decreases in other funding sources) thereby precluding any serious questioning of her budget proposals. In fact, it is the City Manager who makes the financial prospects of the City increasingly problematic through her double-digit budget demands and her budget calculations initiated not on the State-calculated Constant Yield Tax Rate (CYTR) but on the past year approved tax rate and her reliance in dipping in reserve funds and borrowing.
Of course, the City Manager is savvy enough that she knows that, when confronted on the rate she proposes, she can count on reactions such as:
- Colleen Clay's who seems to see the City as an employment agency; or
- Josh Wright's, who when presented with a questioning of the automatic assumption of last year's rate shoots from the hip with a counter-demand that the questioner identifies "areas of cuts", quite confident that he will be able shoot them down.
Don't they realize that if the budget preparation started from the CYTR, rather than from the previous year's adopted rate, costs increases could be clearly identified and an increase from the CYTR be justified, i.e. it would not be a question of cutting services but see what is needed as funding. By starting from last year's rate, identification of costs areas is being muddled as the revenue needed are already taken as an assumption.
Do Council members also have such a short memory that they have forgotten that current Mayor Bruce Williams campaigned for the post last fall on a platform of reviewing all City Departments? I have not seen any Council agenda items related to this promise since he took office and given the magnitude of the task it is unlikely that it was conducted with any seriousness without anybody noticing.
However, would not such an exercise have been quite useful for the Mayor and the Council to have a more informed view of the functioning and performance of each department prior to this budget cycle?
Tom Gagliardo, in his answer to the most recent Gilbert's post, already made a number of suggestions as to how the City could change its ways of profligate spending. I suggest a examples of a few more:
- Eliminate two positions in the City Communications Department, leaving only that of Web master, and replacing them by Gilbert who so benevolently and so gracefully tends very often to present himself as the spokesperson and defender of City hall; [how much does it pay? - G]
- Given the loss of rental apartments in the city, is the continued level of allocation to Housing and Community Development justified.
- Do we know how many youth benefit from the activities of the Recreation Department and what is the cost per youth per type of activity?
A little thinking by a group of people who are interested in having City hall function efficiently and effectively would without a doubt come up with quite a few more areas to review.
So far, it looks like from the Council members only Dan Robinson and Terry Seamens have an appreciation of what the long-established ways of City hall bring to the residents and homeowners. I congratulate them for their concern about the people they are representing and for trying to address these issues. We can only wish that more of the Council members would share that attitude. It is not too late: the budget has to be approved by June 30 at the latest.
-- Alain
]]>Dan Robinson ran into a wall of ice at the May 27 Takoma Park City Council meeting. Shusshshusshshussh, his fellow councilmembers and the city manager cranked up the frost-making machine the moment he brought up his proposal to reduce the city property tax rate.
He asked the city manager which would be the better approach to cutting back the budget - make an across-the-board reduction or identify specific programs to cut or eliminate? Shusshshusshshussh. Councilmember Clay said that when this question had come up in the past, the answer was that after employee positions, which the council are loath to cut, the next items on the chopping block are the council’s own priority projects. Best, she said, to go with the city manager’s carefully calibrated budget proposal. Shusshshusshshussh.
]]> * * * *When Ward Three representative Robinson persisted, the other first-term councilmember Josh Wright snapped that it was one thing to propose a reduction, but if he wanted budget cuts Robinson should show exactly where he would make them. Shusshshusshshussh.
Robinson proposed a two cent reduction in the tax rate. That’s two cents per $100 of a home’s value. The city manager’s proposed rate is 61¢ per $100, Robinson’s proposed rate was 59¢.
A two cent reduction would mean that the owner of a $300,000 house would save about sixty bucks. The owner of a home worth $600,000 would save around $100. If you were the fortunate owner of a $600,000 house, Dear Reader, we wonder what you would do with your windfall $100? Get your Prius detailed, perhaps?
Of course, the half-cent reduction the council settled on (with Robinson the lone dissenting vote) won’t buy you a tank of gas.
Councilmember Seamens proposed saving money by ditching the million-and-a-half dollar council-chambers renovation that would convert the chambers into a performance space. Seamens has long disliked this costly plan. If he were a bit more of a performer, himself, he might do an impression of Gabby Hayes,”We don’t need none ‘a them there gussied-up, fancy gewgaws! This ain’t no dude ranch!”
He might also have done a “Curses! Foiled again!” impersonation of Snively Whiplish when other members of the council pointed out that the project was funded by grants, so postponing it would not save any city tax money.
The budget is up for a first reading at the June 2 meeting, a “first reading” being a sort of practice vote, airing of views, and last chance for revisions before the second (final) reading (vote). The second reading is scheduled for June 9.
The budget discussion has largely consisted of department heads being interviewed by the council. These are similar to citizen committee interviews, a number of which have been held at the same meetings, and you know what a waste of time Your Gilbert thinks thinks THOSE are! In both cases the interviewee tells the council how much they want to serve the city, and the council tells the interviewee how much they appreciate their committee/department. This, of course, takes hours and hours of Your Gilbert’s life, precious minutes down the drain! Ah, but we are happy to sacrifice them for you, Dear Reader.
- Gilbert
PS. More on the Takoma Park Navy, which Your Gilbert reported on in a recent post. There is indeed a navy, or at least a boat, abandoned on the city streets a year and a half ago, that sits in the Public Works employee parking lot. The city claims it has been awaiting paperwork to dispose of the vessel, but Your Gilbert suspects this is just the first of a mighty fleet the council is assembling.
]]>By amazing coincidence (snort!), just prior to hammering out next year’s budget, the Takoma Park City Council was hit up for hand outs by a series of committees and groups.
Not all of them, we admit. The Washington Adventist Hospital Land Use Committee is just forming up and more interested in getting members than money at this point. Safe Takoma, a cross-jurisdictional group (Takoma, DC and Takoma Park) that plans to work on crime prevention through youth programs, among other enlightened means, was more intent on working out a memorandum of understanding with the city than with funding - though funding will be needed ($75,000 budgeted so far).
Hat in hand, Historic Takoma, which has purchased a building in Takoma Junction and is turning it into an office and center to house its records, said it it will “need help” from the city in FY 2009 (note how easily Your Gilbert slips into the bureaucratic jargon, there - “FY” means “fiscal year,” which for you non-bureaucrats means “year. Of course it’s silly and redundant to say “the year 2009,” when “2009” or “next year” would do, but it is much more satisfying to the Bureaucratic Mind to use as many words as possible so they can be trimmed down to impenetrable acronyms).
Even the Independence Day Committee, the group that organizes the Independence Day Parade and fireworks, came poor-mouthing to the council. They were seeking organizational help to raise money more than looking for a line in the budget, however. It seems the annual parade is falling on hard times. There aren’t as many marching groups as there used to be - some of the fancier groups prefer to march in parades where they get paid or have a chance to win more prize money. For some reason the number of homegrown marching groups has declined, as well.
There may not even be a reviewing stand for the judges this year. The city mobile bandstand, which was used for many years, fell apart, the stands borrowed from local counties are not available this year. The committee members and the city council played a game of “hey, why don’t you buy one and we’ll borrow it? “Naw, why don’t YOU buy one and we’ll borrow yours?” for a while but it ended in a stalemate.
What they should do is make all the city committees and groups like Historical Takoma enter floats in the parade and as they march along the parade route hold out buckets for donations. Whatever they get in the buckets is their annual budget with a small cut taken out for the Independence Day Committee.
Now, why didn’t the council think of that? Until they do, Dear Readers, prepare to be pestered to enter a float in the parade, make a donation, and sell and/or buy raffle tickets. The parade and fireworks display are funded entirely by donations and raffle ticket sales, by the way. Other than providing police and such services, the city government (and budget) is not involved.
So, buy those raffle tickets!
While we’re at it, how about a granolapark float? All you Dear Readers would love the chance to carry and attend Your Gilbert in an enclosed sedan chair, wouldn’t you? In harem costumes, definitely.
- Gilbert
]]>Coincidentally, only a week earlier the city’s Emergency Preparedness Committee presented a report to the city. It is a good thing that the tornado did not tear up more of Takoma Park, because it is not ready for a large-scale disaster, according to the committee. They are still discussing how to communicate with residents if there should be one. Among the possible means are siren signals (though they city would have to buy new sirens, having sold the one the fire department had), and emergency radio receivers. The receivers are inexpensive, they said, and are standard household equipment in places such as Florida where hurricanes or tornadoes are frequent occurrences.
]]> * * * *Other discussions at the April 21 city council meeting have been well covered elsewhere, particularly the bottled water ban. Yes, to the smirks of those who like a good chortle at Takoma Park’s expense, the city has banned the purchase of bottled water by the city government (not residents). Despite the perfectly sensible grounds that bottled water is considerably more wasteful and not necessarily better for you than tap water, the media seems to think this a nutty act equal to declaring ourselves a nuclear free zone.
The media largely ignored the council’s discussion about a (yet another) resolution against the sale of the Metro commons to a land developer. Citizens jumped all over a statement included in the draft resolution that seemed to undermine the city’s position - offering a compromise solution if the sale were approved. City attorney Sue Silber defended the clause, saying she wanted to cover all the contingencies, but the citizens still urged the council to hold a firm, consistent position against the sale.
At the more recent April 28th meeting, the council was treated to a PowerPoint presentation (insert standard rant against PowerPoint presentations here) showing the proposed addition and changes to the Takoma Park Elementary School and lot.
Your Gilbert is appalled. We understand the need to expand the school, but the plan is to build out onto the playing field. The current “annex,” the obvious space to use, is to be demolished for - get this - a bus lane. Why? Because the combined bus and parental drop-off and pickup traffic is so bad there need to be separate entrances for buses and cars. The side of the steep hill is to be cut off like a strip-mined West Virginia mountain to make a flatter surface for the bus lane. This will require the axing of all the trees and other plants on what is currently a pleasant, green slope. It also means a huge retaining wall will be necessary. Neighbors are understandably concerned with what that will look like.
It was astonishing how much the design revolves around automobile needs. This, mind you, is for an elementary school, which means that most of the students live within a mile. Yet the use of automobiles and buses is so heavy that it drives (so to speak) the school design.
So, let’s get this straight Dear Readers. Here in Takoma Park we are so green we ban bottled water, but we burn all that fossil fuel to get our kids to school less than a mile away? If we’re environmentalists here in Takoma Park, why aren’t we talking about finding ways to scale back the car and bus lanes? For instance: walking school buses.
- Gilbert
]]>Too late! The doors have banged shut, the bolts slammed home. The lights are extinguished. An ominous humming noise begins in the dark. Images flash on the screen - a PowerPoint presentation! Oh NO, it's, . . . .
the Takoma Park City Budget FY 2009!
No, the budget process hasn't QUITE begun, this was just the preview of the city manager's proposed budget. As she pointed out to the council, the budget process is one of its most vital functions. Your Gilbert agrees, but like certain other vital functions we each perform, usually in private, it is not one we like to dwell upon. We certainly don't get very excited about it.
Still, there is a certain fascination as city manager Barbara Matthews outlined the important parts of the upcoming discussion. In fact, Your Gilbert's gently closing eyelids abruptly widened in shock, because there in plain black and white (well, more like dark blue text on a light blue background) is the most appalling example of pointless waste and excess we have ever seen.
"Maintenance of City infrastructure and fleet."
We're paying for a FLEET? The city doesn't even have a waterfront - unless you count its section of the Sligo Creek, which barely has room to float a rowboat.
No wonder city taxes are so high! Takoma Park has its own navy!
Hopefully, we'll have more on this shocking development when the council begins a series of budget meetings on May 5th.
- Gilbert
]]>The crucial question (posed by councilmember Doug Barry) is, does this threaten the safety or well-being of any Takoma Park resident?
Er, . . . . no. came the answer (in essence) from Chief Ronald Ricucci
So, what’s the big deal about the TP Police Department losing its accreditation?
It was Topic Number One at the April 7 City Council meeting, The mayor brought it, and the chief, up first thing during the Council Comment segment. The chief told a long story about it. The short version is that due to the transition between chiefs, the transition between employees whose job it is to track accreditation issues, the addition of criteria by the accreditation agency, and the TPPD’s discovery of those additional criteria too late to fully meet them, they decided to opt out of accreditation this year.
]]> * * * *There has been some buzz about an attempted cover up of the loss, but the Mayor assured citizens “nobody was trying to keep this quiet, and I apologize if that's how it appeared to be.” He said the council had not discussed it at length and had been planning to deal with it during the upcoming budget sessions when the police department budget was being reviewed.
Doubtless, these explanations and apologies will have no effect on the nattering nabobs of negativity on the Takoma Voice community discussion list where this issue first publicly erupted. There, fewer than a half-dozen list-members, frequent critics of the city and police force, have been working themselves into a state of high alarm about this.
Your Gilbert yawns and moves on.
If you want to get alarmed about something, Dear Readers, get alarmed by how much council meeting time is taken up interviewing potential members of citizen’s committees. Why is it necessary to bring these volunteer citizens before the council? The same thing happens every time. The potential committee members are introduced by a current committee member, the councilmembers ask “why do you want to do this?”, the applicant tells them how long she or he has lived in the city, how his or her children benefitted from living here but now they are older so she or he has more time to volunteer, what his or her work or interest is that qualifies her or him for the committee, how tickled pink she, he, or it is to live in this wonderful city and how “I just want to give something back.”
Then the council has to tell them how wonderful they are for volunteering and how valuable the (insert name here) committee is to the community because of all the work it does on the (insert a list of committee accomplishments here). At which point the currently serving committee members remind the council of any accomplishments they left out.
Really, all the council needs to ask is two questions: “Are you breathing?” and “Do you expect to continue breathing for a year or so more?” This could be done in writing - on a VERY SIMPLE form. Nobody would have to get all dressed up to appear before the council (hmmm, the goddess-motif dress, the tie-dyed t-shirt, or the pants-suit?), and nobody would have to memorize those lists of committee accomplishments.
Speaking of the police, Your Gilbert noted a Gazette article reporting that a 31 year old Sliver Spring resident, a Montgomery County substitute teacher, died in police custody after being tasered. He was arrested for walking on the side of an interstate highway and resisting arrest.
You may recall, Dear Readers, that the Takoma Park Police Department received the council’s permission to purchase (with grant money) enough tasers to fully arm the force. You may also recall Your Gilbert’s post on the matter in which we quoted Amnesty International, “The degree of tolerable risk involving Tasers, as with all weapons and restraint devices, must be weighed against the threat posed. It is self-evident that Tasers are less injurious than firearms where officers are confronted with a serious threat that could escalate to deadly force. However, the vast majority of people who have died after being struck by Tasers have been unarmed men who did not pose a threat of death or serious injury when they were electro-shocked. In many cases, they did not appear to have posed any significant threat at all”.
-Your Gilbert
]]>Rummage through those giant brains of yours and pull out some brilliant ideas! A resident posed a problem to the city council at its March 24th meeting. A stay-at-home mom, she would like to drop by her friends’ houses or Jequie Park* and NOT get a ticket for parking in a permit-only zone. These zones are primarily to keep out commuter parkers, she said, so wouldn’t it make sense to allow city residents from other neighborhoods to park there for 2-3 hours?
She was following up on a letter to the council. In her letter she made a couple of suggestions: 1) the city make parking stickers available to city residents, and 2) that drivers leave an indicator on their dashboard showing what time they parked so that police could allow a 2-3 hour parking period.
]]> * * * *Councilmember Reuben Snipper had already discussed her letter with police chief Ronald Ricucci, who according to Snipper was less than keen with either idea. Ricucci reportedly said that there was already a system in place - the resident visitee has only to call police and ask them not to ticket the visitor’s car. This is similar to the system used when residents are having a party with several guests who need to park in permit-parking neighborhoods. Residents in these areas get one visitor’s pass as well.
Snipper said he felt this was too “ad hoc,” that it would be up to people to call, pick up a permit, or otherwise make an extra effort that parents of small children (the people he felt would be most in need of this) would not have the extra time, energy, or brain cells required to perform.
Certainly, a resident's phone-call to the police may be the easiest way to deal with visitors in a permit-parking zone, but it won't solve the problem of parking around Jequie Park.
Councilmember Josh Wright suggested having scratch-tickets that visitors place in their car window, as is done in New Haven, Connecticut, he said. He speculated that the internet might facilitate a solution, perhaps parking permits that could be accessed online and printed at home.
The mayor ended the discussion by dumping the problem onto the staff, asking them to come back with suggestions.
So, help the overburdened staff, Dear Readers. What is your idea? The best solution will be a “little-or-no” one. Little or no expense to the city, little or no staff or police time, and little or no effort for residents.
An internet-based solution seems obvious, but keep in mind that not everyone has internet access.
In other city council news, the council took a break from meeting this week, saving their stamina for twice-weekly budget meetings later this spring. They’ve been enjoying (in a very broad sense of the word) a series of citizen committee interviews (“So, you want to serve on this committee. Well, the requirements are pretty strict - can you breathe?”) and the like.
Councilmember Seamens tried to stir things up by mentioning that Takoma Park is no longer on the environmental cutting edge along with such cities as Raleigh, NC which, ahem, recently banned garbage disposals. So, why don’t WE do that, huh? Ya wanna? C’mon, you guys, it’ll be fun!
OK, he didn’t say it quite like that, but the other council members reacted as if he had, looking down at their shoes as though to say “Naw, we can’t do THAT, we’d get in TROUBLE.”
- Gilbert
*How do YOU pronounce “Jequie”, Dear Readers? Most councilmembers (and Your Gilbert) tend to pronounce it “JECK-ee,” the aforementioned citizen pronounced it “JACK-EE,” and the city staff pronounce it something like “JECK-you-aa.”
The park is named for Takoma Park’s once-sister city, Jequié, Brazil. And, according to this Takoma Voice article by Diana Kohn, the staff have it right.
Break out the chains and your copies of “We Shall Overcome”! It is time to affix yourself to the nearest Metro bus.
That was the consensus of the March 19th community meeting held to share information about the proposed development of the Metro “common” and discuss what the city’s next step should be in opposing it.
A large number of people attended, many of them activists who have been working on the issue for the last ten years. Not least of them were the city councilmembers, mayor, and staff (and former mayor Cathy Porter who also attended) who over the last decade have passed six resolutions, buttonholed every politician with an ounce of influence over WMATA, testified at numerous meetings, written stacks of letters, and otherwise put many hours of effort into opposing the development.
]]> * * * *
And what do they (and we) have to show for it? Not much. The resolutions, testimony, and influence have gone largely ignored by the WMATA board. It is clear that the board has one outcome in mind and considers the review process window-dressing.
There are still three outside agencies through which the development must pass review: The FTA (Federal Transit Administration), the DC Zoning Board, and DC Historic Preservation. However, as one of the meeting participants, a DC advisory neighborhood commissioner, noted, DC’s mayor Adrian Fenty, who favors the EYA development, has been appointing his own zoning board members.
So, these reviews offer thin hope.
Another tactic the city can use is The Lawsuit. Understandably, city officials did not want to get specific about this as they do not want to publicly reveal their legal strategy. They did mention the potential high cost.
The tactic that our elected representatives would like to see as well, and one they don’t feel they should spearhead - is “direct action” from citizens. You know, what THAT means, Dear Readers! Linking arms! Singing “We Shall Overcome!” PIcketing! Chanting! Blocking busses! Chaining ourselves to turnstiles!
The audience was solidly behind this idea. Rumor has it that even former mayor Porter was fired up and ready to get in The Man's face. Politely, of course.
Some in the audience accused the city council of exhibiting a lack of passion for the issue. The Mayor assured them that this was not the case, the council and he were at the meeting to listen and gauge the community’s passion. They were also looking for direction. The last thing they want to do is start tilting at windmills only to have the citizenry object to wasted effort and money. It has happened before.
The council council tactic has been to focus on making sure the Metro transit facility, including: handicapped access to the subway, adequate room for buses, facilities for bikers, and so forth, is not compromised by the development. This, they feel is where they have the strongest case.
Some citizens, particularly those who had gone through the original struggle over the Metro station configuration with WMATA 32 years ago, spoke about returning to the original outrage - the despoiling of the green space which WMATA once promised to keep a permanent feature. They asked why the city was not insisting on holding them to that promise.
The reason, the council replied sadly, is that no written evidence of that promise has been found.
So, Dear Readers, it is up to us now. Are we willing make pests of ourselves to WMATA, to irritate them until their little beady eyes widen with frustration and annoyance, until they are driven to make peace, negotiate, surrender, anything to make it STOP?
Ooo, sounds like fun!
--Gilbert
Some very irate citizens want the city council to get a grip. On the city staff. By the scruff of the neck. Some council members are eager to do so.
The reason for this griping and gripping is The Survey, the one that asks “What should the city council do” about the proposed development on the green common and parking lot surrounding Takoma Metro station. Perhaps you saw it, Dear Reader, as it slithered out of your city newsletter. Or perhaps you browsed over to the city website and filled out the online version there. Maybe you filled it out twice, a dozen, or hundreds of times! And then you downloaded the pdf to your printer and printed out thousands of copies which you surreptitiously delivered one at a time, wearing a series of disguises, to the municipal building!
]]> * * * *Sorry, Dear Readers, they are on to your little game! But, suggestion-box-stuffing and fraud are not the chief concerns here. It seems a city consultant (not a staff person, as it turns out), hired to facilitate the special March 19th public meeting about the Metro development, interviewed 10 city council and staff members familiar with the issue, crafted this survey based on the interviews, and - without giving the poo-bahs a chance to back-peddle, er . . . clarify and correct the survey questions, took it straight to the printers, ran off 13,000 copies and tucked them into the city newsletter.
This was considered to be worse than a well-intentioned “oops” by the peetybeeties (PTBTs - Pitchfork and Torch-Bearing Townsfolk) who showed up at the March 10th city council meeting. It wasn’t just townsfolk, either. Two Washington, DC Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners showed up to say “WTF!” Commissioner Sarah Green said the survey questions and info gave her the impression Takoma Park was ready to “throw in the towel.”
Councilmember Josh Wright, whose Ward 1 borders the Metro station was clearly irate about the survey. Neither he nor any of the other councilmembers had seen or reviewed it he said - as they murmered and nodded in assent. He further said he was not told there would be a survey. He found the survey questions confusing and poorly constructed. Some of them, he said, were off-topic and asked for answers the council does not need. He urged citizens not to fill out the survey, but to come to the March 19th special meeting on the Metro development.
Wright is one of the two New Guys on the council who took office in January. Clearly the training wheels are off. Also, Your Astute Observer noted that none of the other councilmembers mentioned the survey issue in the Council Comment session - probably a result of new mayor Bruce William’s encouragements to eliminate redundant, time-wasting comments.
Following the council and citizen comment periods the Mayor Williams turned to city manager Barbara Matthews for her weekly comments, encouraging a response to the survey complaints. Her response was terse and brief. And, somewhat difficult to parse.
“. . . at last week’s meeting councilmember Wright had asked for some additional information about the March 19th public session on the Metro issue that was sent to the council via email. I won’t reiterate that.
“I would just comment as was indicated in the email from [the facilitator] to the council, the survey questions he developed would certainly show the concerns that have been expressed here tonight with [the facilitator].
“But he did conduct a series of confidential interviews with the city council members, each of them individually: myself, the city attorney Sue Silber, [and] deputy manager Susanne Ludlow. He had actually recommended this survey and crafted the questions based on those interviews with the ten of us. . . . But I will make sure he hears the comments here this evening that the council has expressed . . . as well as members of the public.”
There are two ways to read this, either, “Oh, yes he DID tell you about the survey if you’d just READ YOUR DAMN E-MAIL.” or “Yeah, he screwed up, but he was going on information YOU provided him.”
Either way, the flawed survey insures that even more peetybeeties will show up next Wednesday night. If there’s anything Takoma Parkians LOVE it is to wave those pitchforks at their elected representatives!
--Gilbert
“Wow, this is going to be a huge impact. This will drive people crazy.” said Takoma Park councilmember Colleen Clay.
Mayor Bruce Williams was apparently already driven crazy. He was squinting like a vengeful Clint Eastwood at the groveling band of sorry-excuse mongers standing before the council podium.
The band, otherwise known as the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), was at the March 3 city council meeting to present that public agency’s plan to replace and relocate old water and sewer pipelines on Sligo Creek Parkway this summer. The parkway, a well-used commuter route, will be torn up and closed to traffic.
The mayor and council took WSSC’s assurances that the job would take 90 days (6 months at the very most, they said later), with enough grains of salt to start a pretzel factory.
The mayor was particularly salt-engrained, describing through gritted teeth how a similar project in his own neighborhood had failed to live up to the same sort of criteria and schedule that WSSC promised for the Sligo Creek Parkway job.
For instance, residents were not warned of upcoming water outages, contrary to WSSC pledges to do so, said the Mayor. He ticked off several more annoyances, including the fact that the temporary road patches now covering the work (until permanent ones could be made in warmer months) were inadequate.
The WSSC representatives hastened to regruntle the disgruntled mayor. The head contractor for the Sligo Creek Parkway job rose to assure the mayor that he would be taking a “personal interest” in making sure the job was done on time and to the community’s satisfaction.
The community will need a lot of satisfying. Most of the wards will be affected by the project. The city representatives expressed worries not only about WSSC keeping to its promised schedule, they were afraid the parkway closure would send heavy commuter traffic onto small neighborhood streets. They were also concerned about the potential loss of trees in the park.
WSSC swore on a stack of water utility bills they were not planning on taking any trees down, and that they would hold to the stated schedule.
Pass the salt.
At the same meeting the council heard from Takoma Park Police Chief Ronald A. Ricucci and two representatives from ACS State and Local Solutions, the contracting firm that wants to sell its speed camera service to the city.
The city already asked the police to do a speed study to see if the cameras would be worth the expense and effort. The police came back in the fall and said “no,” but the council asked them to review the data again.
A new study was done, this time by the contractor, that would be the contractor that wanted to sell cameras to the city, and, gosh, whaddyaknow? They came back with data showing that cameras WOULD be worthwhile!
Only councilmember Dan Robinson spoke up to remind the council that when it had reviewed the police speeding study, they had talked about using physical traffic calming measures rather than cameras to slow drivers down. He was promptly squelched by the mayor.
The contractors identified 4 possible spots: the 7400 block of New Hampshire Ave., the 1000 block of University Ave., Takoma Ave. near Buffalo Ave., and the 500 block of Ethan Allen Ave.
The council decided that the city should try putting cameras, or one mobile camera, at two of those locations.
The income from the speeding tickets (for going at least 10 miles above the speed limit) would be split between the city and the contractor, the city getting 40%.
For background on this, check out the April 17, 2007 granolapark post “City in the Van Guard”
--Gilbert
]]>Having a cold winter? Not as cold as the provost’s!
Brad Stewart, provost of the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Montgomery County Community College branch, is so cold this winter he says he feels frozen out - frozen out, that is, of the process.
He uttered this complaint between chattering teeth to the Takoma Park City Council. The council offered Provost Stewart the scratchy woolen scarf of sympathy, but they kept the warm down-filled coats for themselves - better this time around that the council be toasty.
This heat-and-cold exchange concerned the upcoming expansion of the college. In 2005 the council created a citizen’s committee to come up with recommendations for the expansion that the city would be happy with. The Montgomery College Neighbors Advisory Committee presented their report at the February 25th council meeting, and the Provost attended.
The report, which was highly praised by the council, described the neighborhoods surrrounding the college, the history and architecture of the area, and previous college expansions and changes in great detail. It looked closely at how the aesthetic and functional design of the college fit, or didn’t fit, with the existing community.
In brief, they recommended that the college should expand to the west of the campus, replacing the big, ugly concrete-box storage businesses on Fenton Street, and to the other side of the railroad tracks. They favored the college selling some or all of its properties on “block 69.” Block 69 has college-owned properties on each of its four corners, the rest is residential. The committee fears the college will try to build massive, out-of-scale buildings on these lots, and perhaps buy up more of the block to do so.
Block 69 is bounded by Philadelphia (Rte 410, East-West Highway) and New York Avenues between Chicago and Takoma Avenues.
Following the committee’s report Provost Stewart addressed the council. He tried to be polite about it, but he was clearly unhappy that he had been, as he repeatedly phrased it, “frozen out” of the committee’s process, as he had only recently been informed that the committee existed and would be presenting a report. He also repeatedly said that he agreed for the most part with the committee’s recommendations, BUT . . . and here he talked vaguely about Reality, Limitations, Budgets, and the like. He did get specific about selling block 69 properties for “chump change,” and how the storage buildings would cost many millions more.
He also warned the council that though he would definitely take into account the wishes of the community, his priority, as dictated by the college mission statement - and here he almost choked up - was his students. We are sure, Dear Readers, his students’ deepest concern is that the college keep expansion costs down. They worry about it so much they have trouble sleeping, and it affects their grades.
He could not respond in much detail, he explained, because the college had no plan yet. The architects are coming to review the site this spring, and a charrette with faculty and students is planned a little later. The draft plans will be released in the summer, at which point community feedback is welcome.
Ahem, and that’s exactly our point, thought the council and citizens.
The council and the committee explained that while they regretted that the Provost felt frozen out, it was they who were tired of being out in the cold in precisely the way he had just described the college's process, which did not include community input until a plan was already drafted. Then, as has been so often the case, the community would be in the position of fighting a plan that was moving forward with little opportunity for anything other than token changes.
The Provost and city parted amiably, however. He said he would show the committee’s report to his architects and would give the community opportunities for input.
--Gilbert
]]>How boring has the Takoma Park City Council been this year? So boring, Dear Readers, that when former mayor Kathy Porter showed up at the Feb. 4th meeting, the new mayor and council jumped onto the big council desk, scattered papers into the air, and screamed “OOOK OOOK OOOK!!!” while walking on their knuckles like chimpanzees. The former mayor frowned, though with a fond twinkle in her eye, and barked her familiar old admonishment, “Bad council! No cookie!”
]]> ————————————————————————————————————————————Not really. But, it might have happened that way. Until the former mayor’s appearance the council had been subjected to days of yawn-inducing agenda items, most of them interviews of citizen committee applicants, that would make even the most hard-core council-wonk feel like a caged animal.
Of course, we don’t know how exciting the closed portion of these recent meetings have been. Those closed sessions have all been city attorney briefings, one of them the annual litigation update. O, to be a fly on that wall!
The former mayor appeared before the new council as part of a panel briefing them on affordable housing.
Yes, Dear Reader, here we go again with affordable housing. No bellowing landlords or weeping tenants this time around, however. This was just a look at the range of possibilities to maintain or create affordable housing, both rental and owned, in the city.
The Takoma Park Affordable Housing Policy and Action Plan, adopted in 2002, calls for such periodical reviews. In addition, as the council hashed out revisions to the rent control law last year, it resolved to take a look at the overall issue of affordable housing. The trends then were alarming - a steep rise in home costs and property values, and the conversion of many apartment buildings to condominiums. These trends were depleting the rental stock and making the city unaffordable for the low-to-middle income people who live here and want to live here.
The other members of the panel, city staff members Linda Walker, and Sara Daines did most ot the talking, especially Ms Walker, who is the Affordable Housing Manager.
Your Gilbert admits it was hard not to glaze over, as most of the ideas described -- including nonprofit subsidized housing development and low-income home buyer assistance -- involved some sort of federal, state, or county grant, program, or legislation. The acronyms and jargon were buzzing around Your Gilbert’s ears like mosquitoes in a swamp.
Sparing you the details, the short story is there are many interesting possibilities to discuss, but the devil is in the details. Those devilish details include not only cost but unintended consequences. For example, Ward 1 councilmember Josh Wright pointed out that the city might assist a low income family to buy a house, but what would prevent that family from selling it at market value therefore making the house unaffordable to other low-income people?
The former mayor, reminding them that the city has “chewed on this nut of providing affordable housing” for a long time without finding the perfect solution, commended the council for their interest in affordable housing,. Well, she SAID “I commend the council,” but when former mayor Porter says “I commend” to anyone, Your Gilbert can’t help but wonder if she means something else entirely. “You blockheads, you are wasting your time!” perhaps.
Anyway, she went on to reiterate what she said many times during her administration, that as controversial as it is, rent control gives the city the best bang for the buck as far as an affordable housing policy is concerned. She pointed out that other programs are a lot more expensive.
She also touted the city’s law that requires landlords who choose to sell their properties to offer the property first to the tenants The city also helps tenants in such situations purchase the building.
Porter speculated that the city’s future affordable housing policy would take the form of enabling nonprofit ownership.
Your Gilbert notes that one of the difficulties rent control has in Takoma Park is that the city is a small island of rent control, while in surrounding areas, rental rates soar - adding to resentment among local landlords. According to The Gazette newspaper County Councilmember Marc Elrich is proposing rent control in Montgomery County. Elrich is a former Takoma Park councilmember and was one of the architects of the city’s rent control ordinances. Perhaps the island is about to become much bigger.
Meanwhile back in Takoma Park, it is Your Gilbert’s opinion that the city council is treading on its own feet. On one hand, er foot, they dream up affordable housing policies, but agonize about how much it will cost taxpayers. On the other foot, they do everything they can to gussy the town up, which drives up property values.
If the council is serious about this, and doesn’t want to add to the tax burden, it should pass laws that forbid any more home additions, require every city block to have at least two junker cars wasting by the curb, allow only chain link fences, and encourage the feeding of rats. It should ditch the plan to install that expensive new upscale city signage and kiosks, put off all road improvements for five years, and stop enforcing city codes such as rules against broken window panes, ill-fitting garbage can lids, and unkempt, trashy yards -- those charming-but-human elements that contribute to our dear community’s scruffy ambiance.
These are all low-cost or money-saving measures that would blunt, or hopefully even depress, the rise of property values here, which would be the best, no-cost way to preserve affordable housing.
OOOK, OOOK, OOOK!
--Gilbert
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